Pair of Characters working well together

[The Goblin King]

My players liked running Monk + Rouge. It suited their personalities. The Monk was the 'tank' with the Rouge backstabbing. They did have problems facing casters. They were pretty good but not the greatest pair ever. The Monk wasn't the best fighter and the Rouge had to get by with Use Magic Device. I skewed the adventures to them however. I would usually run one big monster they could concentrate on instead of a horde of orcs that would wear them down. I would also shy away from powerful casters. One time I had a Mindflayer waiting for them at the top of a tower. They both failed every saving throw they got. Bad luck on the Monk and the Rouge didn't have a chance. It was almost a TPK. Instead I had them captured and taken to the dungeon to be interrogated.

My advice would be to take whatever class you are comfortable with and let the dice fall where they may!

 

[takyris]

Other 2-player campaign thoughts:

Have good saves. Allocate your scores and feats so that, if you don't have good saves by default, you get them when you're done picking skills and feats.

For the DM: Have a backup plan. Always have a backup plan. They're going to both fail a Reflex save a lot of the time. They're gonna get trapped, captured, knocked unconscious, or nearly killed a whole bunch. I'm not just saying "Make encounters easier," although you should, both because of the lower numbers and because the PCs have to be generalists, rather than specialists, in order for two people to cover all areas. I'm saying "Have a plan for what happens if they get captured by the goblins and made to work as slaves. Have a plan for if their breakout plan from the goblin slave camp fails. Have a plan for if they fail their diplomacy checks with the goblins and are thrown, naked and defenseless, into the troll cave. Have a plan for if they blow their Move Silently check while trying to get past the sleeping troll. And so on.

Sure, realism, fudging, blah blah blah. But you want the campaign to last more than two sessions, right?

 

[ShadowTheft]

A lot of people have thrown around some interesting ideas. I figured I'd throw in one as well. Currently, a friend and I are playing two 6th level characters with a deep background in a campaign. They're brothers, and, interestingly enough, they're twins. One's a Sorcerer, and the other is a Sorcerer as well. Now, I'm sure you're thinking what good is that? There's no tank or pincushion to prevent them from getting overrun in melee combat. Well, the funny thing is we expected the same thing to happen as well. The only reason we chose to pick up these characters and story line was one spell. Mirror Image. The way we've set up the teamwork is fairly solid as well. While both of the Sorcs have the same items, attitude, and name (Drumble and Druumble), they differ in their spells. My Sorc is more combat oriented with offensive spells (lightning based), higher Dex for AC and higher Con for HP. My friend's is more information oriented with higher Int for skills and "detect" spells. He delivers his touch spells via spectral hand (fire oriented) whislt standing behind mine. Lastly, twin hedgehogs finish up the deal (More AC, what can I say?). We decided to make them gnomes since we had the idea of illusion spells in mind at the time as well as an extra bonus to AC for size. Halflings would work well too due to the boost in Dex.

If you're not convinced that two sorcerers can quite make the cut, keep in mind also that with high Charisma, they can take advantage of Bluff in combat to feint. If they succeed, the opponent will be denied Dex as well as Armor with the next touch spell. An AC of 10 isn't too hard to hit with 5d6 electric damage waiting in your finger (Vampiric touch also gets you some temporary HP when you're up against the heavy hitters). Make sure the more combat oriented Sorcerer has Weapon Finesse to make up for the lack of strength (min/maxing is a pain).

To make a long story short, I'd suggest Sorcerer/Sorcerer since no one else has. Who'd a thunk it'd work?

 

[Nifft]

To make a long story short, I'd suggest Sorcerer/Sorcerer since no one else has. Who'd a thunk it'd work?

Only problem is: no healing

Perhaps a slightly different pair of Gnomes, a Sorcerer and a Bard?

-- N

 

[ShadowTheft]

Only problem is: no healing

-- N

One could multiclass as a Cleric if you want a standing healer, or, do what we do and stock up on the Cure Lights.

 

[Nifft]

One could multiclass as a Cleric if you want a standing healer, or, do what we do and stock up on the Cure Lights.

Actually, I think that a Mystic Theurge + Arcane Trickster would be a very cool combo.

Bards get to wear armor, though.

It's a toss-up.

-- N

 

[silentspace]

Rogue + Rogue is always fun! At higher levels Use Magic Device works pretty good too. You can get it with Skill Mastery

 

[Hammerhead]

Ostler, since you live in Ames, do you go to ISU?

I think that a great combo would be a monk and a cleric. One of the significant problems with games that have a small number of PCs is that a simple Hold Person reduces the party be 50%. The extremely high will saves possessed by both classes will make this problem disappear.

Also, there isn't much of an overlap when it comes to skills and abilities. Clerics generally hide in full plate and shield using some mace or longsword, whereas monks wear no armor and use no weapons. Further, the cleric is very slow, and has some nice people skills; the monk is very fast and maneuverable, and has good stealth skills.

Both classes have a religious influence, and them working together is easily explained. The Cleric can use healing magic and buffing magic if make both characters unstoppable.

 

[Ostler]

Ostler, since you live in Ames, do you go to ISU?QUOTE]

I've lived in Ames most of my life. I graduated from ISU about 3 years ago.

Thanks for the suggestions all. Just for laughs here's a really bad idea I came up with.

Duelist & 2 Weapon fighter (dualist)

I'll go back into hiding now...

 

[Chasmodai]

Since you're talking of wilderness, Barbarian/Ranger works good. The Ranger scouts ahead and does the tracking, the Barbarian tanks and eats the traps. Both are excellent fighters, with the Ranger going for sheer number of attacks and the Barbarian concentrating on damage output.

Another idea is to get Barbarian/Druid for maximum versatility. Or Ranger/Druid, which is a pretty deadly combo when you're in the woods (Trackless step, animal companions, Track, wild empathy).

For added fun - one of you play a Druid, while the other plays the Druid's awakened animal companion/cohort (with class levels).